The Secrets of the Kingdom of God - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on Luke 8:1-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/05/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.Luke 8:1-1512/05/21







The Secrets of the Kingdom of God







Today we get to talk about some of the secrets of the kingdom of God. May we all have ears to hear and eyes to see and minds to understand the wonderful truths God has revealed in his Word! And may those truths bear much fruit in our lives.







Let’s begin then in our first point to consider the proclamation Jesus was doing through the cities and villages. This is verses 1-3. We see that Jesus along with his twelve disciples and a number of women were with him as he went to town and city with his important message. I want us to notice two things about this.







First, Jesus’ message was a gospel message, specifically regarding the kingdom of God. This is what verse 1 says, and the Greek there translated as “bringing the good news” is just one word in the Greek. It’s where we get the word in English of evangelizing. Evangelizing is to bring the good news. We talk all the time about doing evangelism as Christians. And what is that good news that we bring when we evangelize? Well, we probably say something about being forgiven of our sins because of Jesus’ death on the cross so that we can be saved from the punishment of hell and have eternal life through faith in Jesus. But notice in verse 1 that the description of the good news is put in terms of the kingdom of God. To clarify, Jesus’ here doesn’t have a different gospel message than what we have today. It’s not that he is talking about different good news than what we are talking about. It’s all a part of the complete announcement of this good news that we call gospel. But I like to point out in cases like this that the way Jesus tended to describe this gospel is in terms of the kingdom. The gospel and the kingdom were intimately connected. One way we can talk about the gospel is about how we come into a glorious and everlasting kingdom of peace and righteousness through faith in Jesus. It is good news to herald the coming of this kingdom and king, especially when there is a way to be a part of such a wonderful kingdom through turning to Jesus in faith. This is the message Jesus was proclaiming everywhere he went. He clearly was on a mission to spread this news far and wide, here, there, and everywhere. He announced the coming of the kingdom. And he taught about what this kingdom would be like and how to be a part of it.







The second thing I want you notice about Jesus’s proclamation here is the people that were with him. He was not out here there preaching all by himself. In the one group, you had the twelve whom Jesus was teaching and training and preparing for their future apostolic ministry. They would carry on the official proclamation of the kingdom after Jesus’s later ascension back to heaven. For now, they were primarily students, learning the secrets of the kingdom so they could one day be the ones to preach this good news themselves on behalf of Jesus.







But then you also have these various women who play an important role here in providing for Jesus materially as he went on this itinerant preaching ministry. Some names are given to us. This Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all the gospels. She would become a witness to where Jesus was buried, and a witness to his empty tomb, and in fact, the risen Lord Jesus first appeared to her before anyone else. That was quite an honor bestowed upon her. The Joanna mentioned here is also among the women who were the first eye-witnesses to the empty tomb, Luke 24:10. Regarding this Susanna,

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